James Anthony Cohen (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)
A 35-year-old man employed at a day care and public elementary school in Florida has been arrested for allegedly possessing videos and photos of “extremely disturbing” child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
James Anthony Cohen was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with 10 counts of possessing material depicting the sexual performance of a child, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Following his arrest, Cohen was immediately suspended from his role as an instructional assistant for special needs students at Tropical Elementary School and removed from his position at KinderCare day care. The sheriff’s office said the day care and the Brevard County School District have been “extremely, extremely cooperative” with the investigation.
“This is a sick puppy. In my 42 years of law enforcement, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as disturbing as the videos that we have recovered as part of this case,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in a Facebook live video. “When I say disturbing, I mean extremely disturbing. Sickening, disgusting, any other word that you can apply to the word evil and concerning would tie into this.”
According to a press release from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation into Cohen began when the Sheriff’s Office received a “cyber tip” on Jan. 24 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), reporting the uploading of child sexual abuse material by an individual in the area.
Through information provided by the internet service provider, investigators said they identified a residence in Melbourne under the control of Cohen and his father as the source of the disturbing uploads.
Cohen was employed as an instructional assistant at Brevard Public Schools, assigned to Tropical Elementary and maintained a second job at KinderCare, both of which are in Merritt Island, about 55 miles east of Orlando.
On Thursday, agents executed a search warrant at Cohen’s residence and interviewed him at his place of employment. During the search, multiple electronic devices were seized.
During the interview, Cohen allegedly admitted that the identifiers mentioned in the tip belonged to him and confessed to viewing the described images. However, he claimed to have deleted them, according to investigators.
“A forensic examination of just one of the devices revealed that it contained 170 videos and 10 images of child sexual abuse material,” the release states. “Multiple images depicted the sexual abuse of children and infants by adults to include penetration and bondage. Upon the discovery of this evidence, an arrest warrant for Cohen was obtained, and he was taken into custody without incident.”
Investigators say no evidence suggests Cohen produced any of the illicit material. But investigators are conducting further forensic examinations on the devices seized.
Ivey also lambasted Spectrum, Cohen’s internet service provider, saying the company took months to provide the information subpoenaed in January.
“I’m not happy with Spectrum or any of these other providers, as it took Spectrum from Jan. 24 until May 15 to return the information to us,” he said. “Knowing what kind of case it was, they took that long to get us that information back, which put innocent lives of children at risk.”
Anyone with information relevant to the case has been urged to contact the sheriff’s office at 321-633-8400.
The post ‘Sickening, disgusting, any other word that you can apply to the word evil’: Elementary school teacher and day care worker arrested on child porn charges first appeared on Law & Crime.